Double R Racing's Linus Lundqvist is the 2018 BRDC British F3
Champion, after storming to his seventh victory of the season at
Silverstone this afternoon (Saturday).

With his title rival Nicolai Kjaergaard retiring on the first
lap, Lundqvist needed only to finish on the podium, but converted
pole into one of the most dominant wins of the year by over three
seconds, and also set fastest lap, potentially putting him in an
ideal position for race three tomorrow afternoon.

Fortec Motorsport's Tom Gamble claimed second after challenging
Lundqvist on the first lap, while Billy Monger took third having
dropped to fourth on the first lap, before moving back into the
podium positions on lap two.

Manuel Maldonado claimed fourth, and hassled Monger throughout
the latter stages of the race, with Ayrton Simmons putting in a
strong performance for Chris Dittmann Racing to take fifth.
Krishnaraaj Mahadik was sixth, a quarter of a second clear of
Hillspeed's Jusuf Owega, while Hampus Ericsson took eighth, holding
off a queue of cars for the duration of the race, with Jamie
Chadwick and Sasakorn Chaimongkol completing the top-10.

At the start, Lundqvist made a good get away to lead to Copse
corner, while behind him, Tom Gamble jumped Billy Monger off the
line to take second on the run down to Copse, with Monger slotting
into third. Gamble challenged Lundqvist on the run down to the
Becketts complex, but the Swede was able to hold him off and retain
the lead. Heading into the final third of the lap, the title battle
swung massively in Lundqvist's favour, with Kjaergaard leaving the
track at the fast Farm left hander, and failing to rejoin.

That development meant that Lundqvist only needed to finish on
the podium to take the crown, but instead he proceeded to pull away
from Gamble at a rate of knots. He held a lead of 1.3 seconds at
the end of lap one, and was two seconds clear at the end of lap
two. As Lundqvist continued to set a string of fastest laps,
the lead was up to 3.4 seconds at the end of lap six, before
stabilising the gap to take his seventh, and ultimately decisive
win of the year, claiming the crown with two races to
spare. Lundqvist holds an 85 point lead with just 72 now
available this weekend.

Behind him, Gamble took a clear second, establishing a gap of
over three seconds to Monger in third to reignite his chances of
taking a top-three finish in the championship, while Monger took
his fourth podium of the year. The Carlin driver was made to fight
for it though, as he fell from second on the grid to fourth on the
first lap behind Maldonado. Monger forced his way past on lap two,
but from there onwards it was a scrap between the pair for the
final podium spot, with Monger eventually taking it by just over
half a second.

Maldonado's fourth place saw him gain two places on his starting
position, while Simmons in fifth had a clear race for Chris
Dittmann Racing having started seventh on the grid, and continuing
his strong adaptation to the BRDC British F3 car.

Double R's Mahadik was another to gain two places from his
starting position to take sixth, and the Indian driver now faces a
fight for third in the championship, being three points behind Kush
Maini, who finished 11th in the race, and eight points clear of
Gamble.

Owega in seventh was just 0.236s behind Mahadik at the flag,
having climbed from 12th on the grid, while Ericsson had race long
pressure from a train of cars, with Chadwick, Chaimongkol, Maini,
and Sun Yue Yang following him closely throughout.

None of that mattered to Lundqvist though, who now joins names
including Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Daniel
Ricciardo as a British F3 Champion, and delivering Double R's
second BRDC British F3 title in three years.

The top three drivers were presented with their trophies on the
podium by BRDC Member and well-known commentator Ian Titchmarsh.
The final two races of the season take place at 09.20 and 14.25
tomorrow.